Bush Backs Off Using Tipsters To Report Activities In Homes

August 10, 2002|By Eric Lichtblau, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, backing away from a controversial anti-terrorism plan in the face of a public backlash, said Friday that it will no longer solicit terrorism tips from utility workers, postal employees and anyone else with access to people's homes.

The pledge scales back President Bush's recently unveiled plan to set up a nationwide network of domestic tipsters from within the U.S. work force who the administration thinks are in a "unique position" to report suspicious activity.

The administration still plans this fall to enlist potentially hundreds of thousands of workers as part of Operation TIPS. But officials have decided that workers with access to homes and private property will not be authorized to use the special, nonpublished tipster hotline, Justice Department officials said.

The notion of cable workers or meter readers reporting what they considered to be "suspicious" activity in someone's house had riled senators and civil libertarians, sparking protests and congressional opposition.

"People were obviously uncomfortable with that, and we were sensitive to that and wanted to listen to the public's concerns," said a Justice Department official who asked not to be identified.

The move heartened civil-rights advocates, who say they don't want the government encouraging people to snoop on their neighbors.

The Operation TIPS program has become a rallying point for critics who maintain that Attorney General John Ashcroft has gone too far in scaling back on civil rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

"They're backpedaling, and I'm glad they're backpedaling," said Laura Murphy, head of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's quite a relief . . . knowing that even the Ashcroft administration is not immune to public criticism."

But Murphy questioned whether scaling back the program means "the true demise of government-sanctioned peeping Toms, or is just a public-relations effort to stem the criticism."

Congressional critics, meanwhile, predicted the changes will not be enough to derail legislation proposed last month that seeks a ban on the program.